[MMAWeekly.com]
St. Pierre, the current welterweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is ranked as the number one "pound-for-pound" fighter in the world by Yahoo! Sports. After coaching opposite top contender Josh Koscheck on The Ultimate Fighter Season 12, the two will fight a week after the season finale on the 4th.
Koscheck has been building up his resumé. One of the UFC's villains, you may recall how he called out the city of Montreal after beating Paul Daley there in his previous fight back in May. That was the same night that the Pittsburgh Penguins had beaten the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series.
"Don't worry, Pittsburgh Penguins are going to kick your ass next week, baby!" Koscheck yelled to the Montreal crowd. "And then I'm going to beat St-Pierre, so you guys are going to lose twice, how bout that? Yeah, that's right Montreal."
*Of course, Montreal came back to win Games 6 and 7 to take the best-of-seven series*
Back in April of 2007, Georges St. Pierre beat Matt Serra at the Bell Centre in the main event at Canada's first ever UFC event, after dominating Serra with takedowns and eventually finishing him off with knees as the seconds ticked away in the second round to win the undisputed welterweight belt, in what remains Canada's finest moment in this sports' young history.
GSP's first win in Montreal did more than win him a title. After beating Matt Serra, and Matt Hughes in his previous fight, it meant that the scrappy French-Canadien had beaten both mixed-martial arts opponents he has lost to. In fact, GSP has not lost a single round since August 25th 2007.
6 fights, 23 rounds.
His opponent that night? Josh Koscheck.
Josh Koscheck vs. Georges St. Pierre
Round 1
Koscheck starts out throwing heavy leather. St. Pierre looked rattled. GSP shoots in and muscles Koscheck to the floor. St. Pierre works from half-guard. Two elbows land for GSP. Koscheck defends well as the Canadian controls him from the top. Koscheck works to his feet and explodes into a takedown. Though GSP gripped fence, he still finds himself on his back. Koscheck lands an elbow of his own. Close round. 10-9 for Koscheck.
So, GSP lost the first round, but would take the next two and the unanimous decision.
While matching the hated Koscheck, known for his trademark frosted tipped hair, against GSP, one of the international heroes of mixed-martial arts, would sell a fight regardless, that angle makes the fight that much more interesting.
Both men are wrestlers who prefer to wear down opponents on the ground rather than knocking them out. In fact, in both fighters' 41 combined professional fights, only four have ended with either Koscheck or GSP knocking out their opponents--Koscheck claiming all four.
Koscheck's last two fights have been extremely controversial, as well. His fight against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson at UFC 106 began with Johnson "delivering" an illegal knee to a downed Koscheck, though fight replays showed that the knee failed to make contact with Koscheck. The fight was stopped to allow Koscheck to recover and Johnson was docked a point. In the second round, Koscheck attempted a punch at Johnson and released his fist as he was to make contact, which resulted in Johnson being gouged in the eye and a second stoppage, of which Johnson never recovered and eventually submitted to a rear-naked choke.
Against Paul Daley, again, in the first round, an illegal knee failed to hit Koscheck, and the judges eventually did not take a point away from Daley, but the fight was mired at the end, when Daley took a swing at Koscheck after the final horn blew. An adrenalin-soaked Koscheck called out the crowd at the Bell Centre to boos as Kos cancelled his victory party to leave town quickly.
So, with all that in mind, is this fight going to be great or what?
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